Guide attachment for industrial stapling machines



8, 1961 B. B. BEEBE 2,994,883

GUIDE ATTACHMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL STAPLING MACHINES Filed Aug. 29, 1960INVENTOR. 5/LL/E 5. E5555 ATIPRNEYJ' United States Patent 2,994,883GUIDE ATTACHMENT FOR INDUSTRIAL STAPLING MACHINES Billie B. Beebe,Seattle, Wash., assignor to Beebe Bros., Seattle, Wash., a partnershipFiled Aug. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 52,470 7 Claims. (Cl. 1-331) Thisinvention relates to an attachment for portable stapling machines,particularly stapling machines for industrial usage in fastening cartonsand analogous containers, and pertains especially to an attachmenthaving as its function to guide the machine as the latter drives staplesalong side edges of the cartons flaps.

For its principal object the invention aims to provide a simple andinexpensive device which may be easily attached to substantially anyportable stapling machine, one which performs its guide function byhearing against a face of the carton adjacent to the side edge of theflap which is being stapled, and which automatically occupies anelevated out-of-the-way position when the stapler is being moved alongthe top of a carton on the latters median line in the operation ofstapling end edges of two meeting flaps.

With these and more particular objects and advantages in view which willappear and be understood in the course of the following description andclaims, the invention consists in the novel construction, adaptation andcombination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary front elevational view portraying anindustrial stapling machine equipped with a guide attachment constructedto embody the preferred teachings of the present invention, the viewincorporating a fragmentary showing of a carton.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view thereof; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view.

Details of construction of the stapling machine to which the presentinvention is applied are of no moment. Suffice it to say that suchmachine is portable and designed for various industrial and trade uses.Machines of this type usually carry a magazine of heavy gauge staplesand forcefully propel the prongs of such staples through the materialwhich is to be stapled, such propulsion being obtained by action of aspring loaded and released by pressure exerted upon a hand lever. Amachine of the described nature is designated generally by the numeral5. 6 represents a carton having at each of its two ends the usual flaps7 which extend inwardly from each of two opposite edges of the cartonstop or bottom face, as the case may be, and overlie two other flaps 8which extend inwardly from the two other opposite edges of said top orbottom face. One line of staples 8-1 is customarily applied on themedian line of the cartons upper face so as to connect free end edges ofthe two flaps 7, one to the other free edge and to the underlying flaps8. Other lines of staples S2 are customarily applied normal thereto inparalleling close proximity to each of two opposite side edges of suchupper face so as to connect side edges of the two flaps 7 to the rootend portions of said underlying flaps 8. These staples are driven from abox-like head 10 of the stapling machine, with the driving plane beinglocated in moderately close proximity to the front wall of the head.

According to the present invention there is provided an adapter baseplate 11 which is screwed or otherwise rigidly secured to said head 10so as to present a planar facing for the head 10 disposed parallel withthe driving plane of the machine. This base plate, with a complementingcover plate 12, produces two outrigger arms in each of which there ismounted a respective one of two 2,994,883 Patented Aug. 8, 1961 iceguide bars 13 which are arranged to slide in an endwise direction alonga respective vertical axis. The outrigger arms are so designed that thelower edges lie in a horizontal plane at or above that in which thebearing face 9 (FIG. 2) of the machine lies, preferably the former so asto foot upon the carton face which is being stapled and consequentlystabilize the machine against rocking. Three-sided boxes 14 formed bythe cover plate and employing the base plate 11 as a floor provide slidejournals in which said bars are loosely received. Each said box is openat its top and bottom. An open-bottom vertical slot 15 is formed in thefront wall of each box to accommodate a respective stop-pin 16 which isthreaded or otherwise fixedly secured to each bar so as to projectforwardly therefrom at the bottom end. A similar stoppin 17 is fixed tothe upper end of each bar.

The :depth of the slots is such as permits the respective bars to risewithin the boxes to a level at or above the horizontal plane in whichthe bearing surface 9 of the stapling machine lies. The bars drop bygravity so as normally to occupy the lowered position shown by fulllines in FIGS. 1 and 2, whereat the stop-pins 17 bear upon the top edgeof the respective box 14 and the lower ends project a substantialdistance below the working plane occupied by the bearing surface 9 ofthe stapling machine.

It is believed that the invention will have been clearly understood fromthe foregoing detailed description of my now-preferred illustratedembodiment. In stapling along the edge of a carton the lowered guidebars bear against the adjacent side face and prescribe for the appliedstaples a rectilineal line running exactly parallel with the side faceand spaced therefrom a distance which can be increased or decreased atwill by either shimming the adapter frame 11-12 or substituting for thebase plate 11 another thicker or thinner plate, as may be desired. Inapplying staples along the top of a carton on any line which does notclosely parallel an edge it is only necessary that the operator lift themachine and set the same down on said top whereupon the barsautomatically rise within the journal boxes in that the moderate weightof the bars is far overbalanced by the weight of the machine.

Changes in the deatils of construction can be resorted to withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. It is my intention that nolimitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given thebroadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What I claim is:

1. In combination: an industrial stapling machine of a type employed tostaple cartons and which bears upon and is moved by hand along thehorizontally disposed top surface of the carton, and a guide bar carriedby said machine for vertical motion between a functioning loweredposition in which a guide portion of the bar bears against a side faceof the carton and an out-of-the-way elevated position, said guideportion of the bar, when lowered, occupying a plane forwardly spacedfrom and paralleling the plane in which the staples are driven.

2. In combination: an industrial stapling machine of a type employed tostaple cartons and which bears upon and is moved by hand along thehorizontally disposed top surface of the carton, and a guide bar carriedby said machine, for free vertical motion between a functioning loweredposition in which a guide portion of the bar bears against a side faceof the carton and an out-of-the-way elevated position, said guideportion of the bar, when lowered, occupying a plane forwardly spacedfrom and paralleling the plane in which the staples are driven.

3. In combination: an industrial stapling machine of a type employed tostaple cartons and which bears upon and is moved by hand along thehorizontally disposed top surface of the carton, and a guide bar carriedby said machine for gravity movement from an out-of-the-way elevatedposition into an operating lowered position whereat the same will bearagainst a side face of the carton, the bearing portion of the bar, whenlowered, occupying a plane forwardly spaced from and paralleling theplane in which the staples are driven. V

4. In combination with an industrial stapling machine of a type employedto staple cartons and which drives its staples in a plane lyingapproximately normal and transverse to the machines travel, being movedby hand from one to another stapling position while hearing by its.underside upon the horizontally disposed top surface of the carton, anattachment for the front face of said machine formed to provide twovertical slide boxes each open at the top and bottom and located one atone side and the other at the other side of the horizontal median lineof the machine in a common plane forwardly spaced from and parallelingsaid plane in which the staples are 2,994,883 v V e 5 4 driven, and arespective guide bar journaled in each of said boxes for endwise slidingmotion between an out-ofthe-way elevated position and a functioninglowered position in which an exposed toe portion bears against a sideface of the carton.

5. Structure according to claim 4 in which the bars move by gravity intosaid lowered position.

6. Structure according to claim 4 in which the bars move by gravity intosaid lowered position, means being provided for limiting the endwisemotion of the bars.

7. Structure according to claim 4 in which the slide boxes are comprisedof a flat base plate and an overlying separate cover plate bothremovably secured to the stapling machine, the base plate producing afioor wall for the boxes.

No references cited. p

